It's the season of chocolate and redness. Someone, somewhere found the perfect way to marry these two. It's called red velvet.

Pause. Now I'm all in a dither about how red velvet wormed its way in.

Please enjoy browsing these red velvet recipes while I research the history of red velvet.

Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes in a Jar
Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Red Velvet Ice Cream
Red Velvet Popcorn
Red Velvet Cake with Cheesecake
Red Velvet Cheesecake Milkshake
Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies
Red Velvet Truffles
Red Velvet Cake Doughnuts
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
Red Velvet Crepes
Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies
Red Velvet Pancakes
Red Velvet Fudge
Red Velvet Cake Roll
Red Velvet Cheesecake

And as long as we are exploring red velvet recipes we might as well throw a little ombre in there. (What is it with this ombre trend? I don't understand.)

Ombre Red Velvet Cupcakes

A Brief History of Red Velvet According to Wikipedia
As it turns out Wikipedia doesn't have much to say about the inception of red velvet cakes. It mentions a reference book from 1972 called American Cookery, but the information pulled form there is basically useless to me since red velvet cake has been around for much longer than that. The article does have something to say about the vinegar and buttermilk bringing out the reddish tints in cocoa. Interesting, but not a satisfying answer.

I did some more digging and came up with this. I don't know how accurate this history is, but it's certainly more satisfying. It also lends itself to my particular struggles with red velvet cake.

I understand the need for different varieties of chocolate cake. I have no problem accepting red velvet cake as defining a particular type of chocolate deliciousness. But it seems that these days anything swimming in red food dye with a vaguely chocolate flavor is considered red velvet.

Red velvet should be more than code for red chocolate.

Some of the classic ingredients of a red velvet cake are vinegar and buttermilk. According to the speculative history linked above, brown sugar may also have been an important ingredient in a red velvet cake.

Next time you're all fired up and making something 'red velvet,' do yourself a favor and make an actual red velvet something. Find a recipe with vinegar and buttermilk.

If you can do it, leave out the bottle of red food dye. Really, that's just ridiculous. Also, it will probably kill you. I'm sure some study somewhere says so. If you just can't do it, if you NEED to put in that red dye, I won't say a word just as long as you assure me that you've made a real red velvet.

I am happy to say that more than one recipe given above has both vinegar and buttermilk.

PS You can only type the word velvet so many times before it starts looking really funky.

PPS According to the speculative history of red velvet, devil's food cake used to be red devil's food cake and included brown sugar (she's got the ancient recipe books to prove it). Bet you'd be hard-pressed to find a modern devil's food cake that contains brown sugar. Unfortunate, really. Brown sugar, chocolate cake sounds fantastically delicious.

PPPS There's only one other strangely colored food as popular as red velvet: green eggs and ham. It's from a children's book. On the very, VERY rare occasion you may be offered green eggs and ham it is considered a novelty, a funky treat that takes you back to childhood. It's an experience. I'm all for red velvet cake being similarly rare (not the delicious chocolate cake part of it; just the red food dye part).